My Mother's Southern Kitchen: Recipes and Reminiscences (2024)

It's true. I read cookbooks like I read novels...cover to cover. This is actually my second reading of My Mother's Southern Kitchen. This first time was about 14 years ago. I checked it out from the public library (just like this time). And I have never forgotten this book...particularly the recipe for Ambrosia.

There is a food anthropologist that lives inside my heart and this cookbook makes that part of me giddily happy. Written by James Villas (food and wine editor for 27 years at Town and Country magazine) and his mother, a southern home cook from Charlotte, NC, it is a compendium of recipes and the memories that are inextricably tied to food from generations of their southern family. These people understood that food preparation and preserving is a part of being human. Not many people I know today actually cook at all (let alone serve fresh from-scratch biscuits at every meal). And I feel we are less human because of it. That is why reading this cookbook is such a rich experience. We are reminded that food is an expression of love and sharing a meal is a communal activity. Cooking is being human.

Former UNC student and 27-year food and wine editor of Town and Country magazine James Villas fondly remembers his Mother and her kitchen in this charming book of recipes, remembrances, and family photographs. Concentrated in the Carolinas (he was born and raised in NC), this is a great read with really good recipes too. Another UNC Tarheel makes (very) good!

Every Southern food enthusiast should own this book! Not only are the recipes wonderful, but the author's "reminiscences" are priceless! He keeps up a playful banter with his mother, Martha Pearl, throughout the book, telling stories of when he remembers his mother making the listed recipes, the two fussing with each other over the proper way to do this and that, and her accusing him of "corrupting" her tried-and-true formulas with his big-city culinary mumbo-jumbo. A real hoot! Most recipes are offered in their original form, along with the author's more modern variations and suggestions for substitutions. A good read if you simply read from cover-to-cover, really. Every recipe I have tried has been great. The only suggestion I would give is if you decide to follow the book's directions for canning. Miss Martha gives these directions the old-fashioned boil-the-jars-in-a-stock-pot way, which is fine for anything very acidic (pickles) or anything very sugary (preserves), which all the recipes she lists are. But if you plan to can anything else in between (vegetables, say) then I'd suggest investing in a pressure cooker and buying a Ball Canning Guide. This book fails to mention that its canning method is not suitable for canning all things. Better safe than sorry!

Very much enjoyed reading this southern cookbook! Loved how the author shares memories of his mother and her southern recipes like Summer Tomato Pie, Olive Puffs, Creamy Peanut Soup, and Chicken and Rice with Tomatoes. The author's Greek roots are in evidence with recipes such as Greco and liberal use of Feta cheese in several of the recipes. Definitely, a great choice of cookbooks for southern cooking enthusiasts.

I liked this so much I bought it. True southern cuisine interspersed w/ cute little anecdotal missives about the author's mother, aunts, grandmother & sister as well as himself. Good stuff, for sure.

Like reading your mom's old recipes from a messy recipe box.....good stuff here. Lots of carefully written recipes